Magazin

Two years ago, the Bröhan Collection was sold to China. Egon Chemaitis spoke to Song Jianming about plans for the collection in Hangzhou and the immense importance attached to Bauhaus in China.

With “7 Studies”, gallerist and furniture maker Jörg Schellmann is showing in Munich how seven renowned artists and designers, among them Stefan Diez, Liam Gillick and Donald Judd, are furnishing workspaces. And that they are not all that far from the Renaissance studiolo.

Phyllis Lambert disagreed with her father in the choice of architects and proposed Mies van der Rohe for the construction of the new Seagram headquarter in New York City. In her book she allows insight into the undertaking "Seagram Building

We are in Spain, yes. Yet no sooner than someone mentions Cosentino and “Silestone”, we cannot help but think of a little Gallic village and the power of a magic formula.

Lithuania, one of the three Baltic countries, is largely forested. No wonder that its designers prefer wood primarily as a material. But what role does design play even in a small country between Scandinavia and Russia?

This summer, the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) in Copenhagen is devoting a show to the great Zaha Hadid. It’s an aesthetic pearl, but fails to mention a lot things.

“Learning from Las Vegas” taught us that anyone building in a location where people rush past needs to communicate simple messages. This premise no doubt served Frankfurt-based architects Schneider+Schumacher as a basis for their design. Their highway church speaks the language of a billboard, yet still surprises with its architectural diversity.

The venue: Design Miami/Basel, at the booth of Brussels-based Victor Hunt gallery. There, Daniel von Bernstorff, Stylepark, met designer Johannes Hemann, to talk with him about one of the most hotly discussed topics of the fair – the potential and limits of the interface between art and design.

A special kind of summit: Wolf D. Prix from Coop Himmelb(l)au and several of his colleagues lead a tour of the European Central Bank construction site in Frankfurt/Main.

You need courage and massive design punch to skillfully combine Punk music and Le Corbusier. Thanks to Konstantin Grcic this summer both join forces in Marseille.

The exhibition “Think global, build social” at the DAM in Frankfurt shows how architects support social building projects in developing countries, in a sustainable and communal fashion – using local materials. Yet many questions go unanswered.

Light and supple, transparent or opaque, textiles are extremely versatile. Today they find wide application in temporary architectural projects. With “Textile Architektur” Textil- und Industriemuseum has devoted a special exhibition to them. Now on show in Augsburg.

The idea is unusual, possibly even revolutionary. In the form of “Natevo” Italian bed specialist Flou has involved the public in the design process – and brought glowing furniture to market.

Art Basel is and always was one of the world’s most important art fairs. There’s no lack of museum-quality art works going at exorbitant prices. So what else is there to discover?

In our present age, often over-emphasizing contemporaneity, it can’t hurt on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the German Design Council to cast an eye over its history. Including surprising.

The “German Design Council” has turned 60 and is feting itself with a “Second German Design Debate” at Frankfurt’s Paulskirche.

What future is in store for design in this country? What has altered? At the “Second German Design Debate” designer Stefan Diez held a highly-acclaimed talk on the current state of design.

The Design Miami trade fair, which runs parallel to Art Basel, was not very convincing. It lacked a clear curatorial thrust, exciting exhibitions and statements. And not least there was no clear position on contemporary design, although this is so sorely needed.

The mood was good, the atmosphere great: The DMY Design Festival at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport complex showed what 500 new design talents can come up with if they try. Innovations were in short supply, however, for all the party feeling and Poland as guest country.

Hamburg thrives on its port and on occasion subordinates quality of life to the port’s needs. A new city highway is expected primarily to ease commercial traffic. First up, a design for a new bridge was highlighted. It is stunningly beautiful, but the overall project remains dubious.

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto created this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. Daniel von Bernstorff, Stylepark, spoke to Sophie O’Brian, Senior Exhibition Curator, about the idea behind, the choice of Fujimoto and the Pavilion as an interdisciplinary platform.

The central exhibition at the 55th Art Biennale of Venice tries to gather the intuitive knowledge of art in a “Palazzo Enciclopedico”. Another sets out to reconstruct a legendary 1969 show.

Diébédo Francis Kéré’s works on the premise that building with mud and clay is not only inexpensive and sustainable; it also constitutes a unique cultural asset. Özlem Özdemir spoke to the architect from Burkina Faso about why mud’s appeal as a building material, knowledge transfer in his homeland and the responsibility to preserve one’s own culture.

The art world is changing ever more swiftly. For the most part the country pavilions at the 55th Art Biennale in Venice hardly staged much more than opinions. Yet there were a few exceptions.

Three intensive days in May on Clerkenwell Design Week are brought to a close. Catching up with a truly British interpretation of international design impulses and gaining glimpses of the thought processes that drives creative studios.

Sauerbruch Hutton has designed a forum for the Hager Group at its head office in Obernai, Alsace. Robert Volhard talked to Daniel Hager, CEO of the Hager Group, and architect Matthias Sauerbruch on the requirements the new building had to meet, the human resource factor and the advantages of flexible, open structures.

At the moment, as part of the Van-de-Velde Year, Erfurt’s hosting an exhibition on architect and designer Peter Behrens. While there can be no doubting his status as the father of Modernism, in retrospect the one or other of his designs seems decidedly a product of its day.

Our cities are already bursting at the seams. We need new forms of mobility to shape life in the megacities of tomorrow. In New York experts from Audi teamed up with architects, urban planners and academics to seek answers to one of the most pressing questions of the future.

Coworking spaces need not invariably look as if they were the living room in a flat share; for the Modul 57 project, the emphasis was on technical equipment and ergonomic chairs courtesy of Wilkhahn.

For their 25th annual setting, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair brought environmental awareness to New York.

Not just for aviation enthusiasts: The photo book “Swissair Souvenirs” affords readers an insight into all areas of civil aviation and at the same time makes for a new piece of photography history.

Disappointed by political developments in her home country, after World War II Lina Bo Bardi turned her back on Italy. In Brazil, the architect followed the new social trends and took part in designing Modernism there – and to this day has taken a back seat to great colleagues such as Oscar Niemeyer.

The new collection by Rem Kohlhaas’ OMA for Knoll International is one of the positive surprises of this years Salone. Daniel von Bernstorff spoke to Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, head of the OMA design team, about the cooperation with Knoll, the poetry of moving marble and about the end of signature design.